As we near the end of 2015, market activity is slowing in the lanes, and strong wholesale price depreciation is stabilizing, as is expected during this time of year.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report, which looked at end-of-year trends, highlighted the “usual December slowdown” in auction activity, and also took a look at how depreciation rates have differed between small cars and large trucks over the course of 2015.

 “Depreciation rates start to stabilize across most segments as auction activity slows at this time of the year. Looking at year-to-date trends, smaller cars experienced a larger percentage drop than larger cars this year, driven by higher used supply but lower demand due to low gas prices,” said Anil Goyal, vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

Sentiment from the auction lanes  illustrates this slowdown in the lanes.

Black Book editors overheard one buyer from Nevada say last week, “Dealers are very selective right now and not interested in loading up their inventory,” while another auction attendee from Illinois noted, “Today’s auction was very week; buyers weren’t willing to step up and pay more, and sellers weren’t willing to take any less.”

Last week in the lanes, car values fell by 0.43 percent or $46. This is much lower than the average deprecation rate or 0.66 percent seen for cars over the previous eight weeks, perhaps a sign of seasonality playing a role in stabilizing depreciation rates.

Truck depreciation rates were very similar, with prices falling by 0.47 percent or $70. This is also lower than the average 0.59 percent depreciation seen over the course of prior two months.

Car and truck value movement last week shows the gap is closing after truck prices held much stronger than their smaller counterparts during the first three quarters of 2015.

 Among the car segments, the prestige luxury (down by 0.92 percent or $269), full-size (down by 0.75 percent or $64) and sporty car (0.59 percent or $88) categories showed the highest depreciation rates.

Interestingly, Black Book pointed out, though larger car prices are dropping in the fourth quarter, smaller cars overall depreciated as a much higher rate this year than larger cars.

The entry midsize car performed the best last week out of the car segments with a slight drop of 0.22 percent or $17, followed by the luxury level car category, which saw a decline of 0.27 percent or $52.

For the trucks, the van segments took the biggest hit last week posting a series of over 1 percent declines.

The minivan cargo segment dropped by 1.90 percent or $87, while the full-size cargo vans saw a decline of 1.28 percent or $165. These were joined by the full-size passenger van segment, as well, with a drop of 1.28 percent or $172.

Out of the truck segments, the compact SUV category was the best performing, with a slight drop of 0.05 percent or $9.